Amcrest Surveillance Pro: How To Record Video On PC & Mac

Amcrest Surveillance Pro is an abbreviation for Professional Surveillance System. This software is to manage a small quantity of security surveillance devices. This software supports Amcrest Cameras and does not support products from another manufacturer. It has the following features:

View real-time video of several camera channels.

View the playback video files from various cameras.

Support multiple scheduled arms to realize auto PC guard.

Support e-map; you can clearly view and manage all device locations.

Video wall plan setup and can output video simultaneously.

Support extension applications, sending out alarm information to external programs.

After you’ve finished downloading Amcrest Surveillance Pro to your PC or Mac and finished installing the application, run Amcrest Surveillance Pro to get started.

Step 1: Add your camera!

Once Amcrest Surveillance Pro is opened, select Devices on the left in the lowest Settings menu.

The Devices tab will open and you will find a list of cameras that are connected to your network.

Select the camera you wish to add to Amcrest Surveillance Pro by checking the device from the OnlineDevices list in the upper table. Then click Add, next to Refresh, and click OK to add it to Amcrest Surveillance Pro’s Device List in the lower table.

You will then see your camera in the lower table, but in an offline state.

In the far right of the table, under the Operation column, click on the pencilicon to enter in the cameras username and password to finalize the connection of your camera to Amcrest Surveillance Pro.

The ModifyDevice window will appear, here you will see all the network details of your camera. They should all be accurate, but double check them if you need to and make adjustments as required. The usernameand password will be defaulted to admin. Take this time to update their username or password with the credentials you created when first setting up your camera. This is the username and password of the camera’s interface. Once you’ve made the adjustments, click Save.

Once the camera’s information has been entered in correctly, you will notice the camera’s state will no longer be offline and it will have come online in Amcrest Surveillance Pro.

You’ve successfully added your camera to Amcrest Surveillance Pro! Now you will need to set up your PC or Mac as the Network Video Recorder using PC-NVR.

Step 2: Turn your Computer into a PC-NVR

Go back to the Home Page by using the navigation pane at the top of Amcrest Surveillance Pro. Find PC-NVR located in the center right of the lowest Settings menu.

Once the PC-NVR tab opens, you will find your PC-NVR details, select RemoteDevice.

Click on the Plus button to add a camera from the cameras you have connected to Amcrest Surveillance Pro.

The Add Channel window will appear, select your camera from the Default Group or Custom Group list you’ve created.

The camera will appear in the right screen, check the IPCamera check box.

Once checked, click Import in the bottom right hand corner of the Add Channel window. The camera will now be imported into PC-NVR. Now you’ll need to allocate storage space on your computer’s hard drive for the recordings to be saved.

Step 3: Setting up Storage for Recordings

Within the PC-NVR tab select Disk Manager.

Disk Manager will appear showing you a list of drives that could be used to allocate storage space for your cameras through Amcrest Surveillance Pro.

Select a disk you would wish to use for recording purposes, you may allocate as much space as you have available on the drive within its minimum and maximum allowance.

Once you’ve set a number between the possible storage sizes, click Allocate.

A prompt window will appear to warn you the allocation may take several minutes and the application will restart after completion. Click OK to begin the allocation.

You will notice the disk you selected will now have the allocated space you selected, and at any point in time you can select Free to free up the space by wiping that allocation.

At the top of the Disk Manager window you can select what happens when the disk you’ve allocated gets full. Two options, Stop Record to end all recordings after the disk is full or Overwrite to continue to save over the oldest recorded data.

You’ve successfully added your camera to Amcrest Surveillance Pro, turned your PC or Mac into a PC-NVR and have the camera recording any or all the motion events you have set up internally on the cameras main interface!